See below for information on an opportunity to further develop your resume writing and interviewing skills:
– Lawrence
Hone Your “Getting A Job” Skills
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Monthly Archives: March 2011
EDUC 310 – Prepping for Practicum: Update for Wednesday, 16 March 2011
Well, here it is. The last day of POT/COM class for the year.
We started with a free write on the ideal practicum and the practicum Question Box.
Next, I handed out a calendar with practicum dates. Here are 3 calendars. Choose the one that best suits your circumstances:
We moved into my Top 11 Tips (in a final on-campus nod to Spinal Tap) for a successful prac. Here they are:
Lastly, we engaged in an Appreciation Circle and thanked those who’d supported us over the course of our time on campus.
Enjoy your break and best wishes for a successful long practicum.
– Lawrence
LLED 320 – Invoking Active Participation: Lesson Update for Tuesday, 15 March 2011
Today was all about playing with ideas related to increasing the level of active participation in your lessons. What kind of instructor would I be if I didn’t actively involve you in the process of making sense of today’s content? After all, you and your students can’t sit around in class all day watching funny YouTube clips like this one featuring Lando Calrissian…er, Billy Dee Williams:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSS5wReR9u0[/youtube]
Newspaper Tower Challenge [NOT The Paper Bridge Challenge]
I charged you with building as tall a tower as you could using only 2 sheets of newspaper and, in the second challenge, building another tower using 2 sheets of paper and 20 cm of masking tape. Here’s the instruction sheet:
We ended with a short discussion on the sorts of PLOs that this task could be connected to.
The Newspaper Tower Challenge is a task found on the PBS Building Big website. You can check out this video clip to see how a group of middle school students approached the task. They did a very nice job!
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD58pkqBXwE[/youtube]
Framing Questions
I put forth a case for including active participation in your planning via the PPT slideshow below:
We followed that up with a look at the effective framing of questions as one means to keep students engaged. This section of the class was based on work by Barrie Bennett in his book Beyond Monet.
I asked you to use concept formation – the cousin of concept attainment, the strategy we played with last class – to sort the data set of questions in ways that made sense to you and your partner. As a focus for the task, I asked you to consider what impact each question would likely have on student participation.
Here’s the data set:
Here’s a link to info on concept formation, as well as many other instructional tactics and strategies:
Next, I asked you to read and process information on 10 concepts and skills related to the effective framing of questions using the Jigsaw strategy. The concepts and skills we examined were as follows:
- Complexity of the Thinking (concept)
- The Amount of Academic-Engaged Time (concept)
- The Use of Wait Time (skill)
- Responding to Students’ Responses (skill)
- Knowledge of Results (skill)
- Shifting from Covert and Overt (concept)
- Fear of Failure and Dependency (concept)
- Public vs. Private Failure (concept)
- Distribution of Responses (skill)
- Accountability and Level of Concern (concept)
The reading handout and Jigsaw graphic organizer are below:
We wrapped with a few big ideas related to the framing of questions, a quick review of what went down in LLED 320 class overall, and an exit slip – what was one take away idea from this term’s 320 class.
I’ve enjoyed teaching this class and I wish you all the best of luck on prac. Please remember that the blog is always up for you to access if you need a great teaching idea… or a good laugh! (I post some pretty funny videos. Please see Billy Dee William’s Harry Baals, above).
Take care,
– Lawrence
EDUC 310 – Pre-Practicum Meetings: Update for Monday, 14 March 2011
Thanks to everyone for attending today’s meetings. My goal here was to share some information regarding the upcoming practicum and the role of your FA in the practicum triad. Please see below for a copy of the notes I shared:
Also, here’s the Videotaped Lesson Analysis form I handed out at the meeting. You’ll need a copy of the form to engage in the self- and peer-analysis of your videotaped lesson:
’til Tuesday.
– Lawrence
LLED 320 – Participating Actively Using Concept Attainment: Update for Thursday, 10 March 2011
Today’s focus was on invoking active participation in the classroom. By active participation I mean having students purposefully engaged – with minds on and, whenever possible, hands on – in their learning.
One great strategy for getting students to mentally engage with material is concept attainment.
The Hook – A Data Set on Comparison Devices in Poetry
I started class by having you engage with a concept attainment data set full of personification, metaphors, and similes. Here it is:
We followed all the steps on the concept attainment process:
- Presentation of the Data & Identification of the Concept
- Confirming the Concept
- Extending the Thinking About the Concept
The Body of the Lesson
After that initial data set and experience, I used the following PPT slideshow to structure the rest of class. Here’s the slideshow:
We did the following:
- Considered a rationale for CA
- Defined CA
- Applied the 3 Stages of CA with a Triuns data set
- Glimpsed 2 other CA data sets
- Conflict in literature
- Fact and Opinion
- Attributes of concepts
- Two types of concepts
- conjunctive (definitive)
- dysjunctive (sensitizing)
- TC partnerships developed their own data sets
- TCs played the “Yes No Game” with fellow TCs
Closure
We debriefed the experience of working with CA
Concept Attainment Resources
Here’s the data set on a literary term that I used in the middle of the presentation:
… and here’s another data set on Fact and Opinion:
Suprisingly, YouTube has a few videos on the topic. For instance, here’s a data set on renewable and non-renewable resources:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vihCWCIobOg&NR=1[/youtube]
Here’s another on totalitarianism, a theme in the novel 1984:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jPHzkbvaEQ[/youtube]
If you’re keen to play with CA on your prac… and I strongly suggest you do, here are some data sets I’ve used in my classroom over the years to help stimulate your thinking about the possiblities:
LA
- Poetic Devices Met-Sim-Pers Yes No Game Data Set
- Attention Grabber Yes No Game Data Set
- Alliteration Yes No Game Data Set
- Persuasive Speech Topics Yes No Game Data Set
- Disagreeing Agreeably Yes No Game Data Set
MATH
HACE
Here’s a visual data set similar to the Triuns one that you could use to intro the topic of CA with your students:
Finally, here’s the Bennett reading I mentioned in class. It will give you a deeper understanding of how you can use CA effectively in your classroom:
Cheers,
– Lawrence
Term 2 Copying Fee for LLED 320, EDUC 310/316, and Practicum Prep
As per the email I sent out recently, the fee for this term is as follows:
- Middle Years TCs: $5.50 / person
- Elementary TCs: $4.00 / person
Please have payment to me no later than Tuesday, 15 March 2011.
Thanks,
– Lawrence
Blog Full!
Believe it or not, this blog is so full of EDUC 310/316, and LLED 320 goodness that I’ve used up nearly all of my zeros and ones. I’ve requested more MB from CMS, the blog overlords, but, until then, I can’t make a post of anything more than a few sentences of text. Hence this post.
I’ll be sure to post an update from LLED class on Thursday, 10 March 2011 when I have the room.
If you would like to see information on Concept Attainment, you can check out this blog post: LLED 320 – Invoking Active Participation: Update for Tuesday, 16 March 2010.
At that link you’ll find a rundown of a lesson that I delivered last year that was close to what you experienced this year.
Cheers,
– Lawrence
EDUC 310: Pre-Practicum School Group Meetings with Lawrence in SC 210
Here’s the agenda and schedule for our Monday meetings:
See you then.
– Lawrence
EDUC 310 – Inquiry Project Feedback Meetings: Update for Wednesday, 9 March 2011
Today I met with most of the TCs that I teach in POT/COM class but don’t supervise on practicum. The purpose of this meeting was twofold. I wanted to:
- Discuss my assessment of your Inquiry Project paper
- Gather your thoughts on the Inquiry Project process
Thanks to all who attended today’s meetings. I really enjoyed reading your pieces and talking about them with you.
By the way, here’s the rubric I used in my assessment:
– Lawrence
LLED 320 – Martha Game, WHERETO Tableaus, Unit Sharing, & D.I. Readings: Update for Tuesday, 8 March 2011
WHERETO
After a few drama activities to get you warmed up – Zip, Zap, Bop, Bang! and the Martha Game – we played with WHERETO, an acronym that summarizes the key elements that should be in your learning plan / lesson sequence. Here’s the WHERETO information package we worked with:
The WHERETO task was as follows:
- Form a group of 4-5
- Choose a WHERETO letter from my Boston Bruins hat
- Read the section of the handout relating to your chosen letter
- Come up with 2 or 3 key ideas related to your section. Ask yourself, what do my classmates really need to know about this section?
- Design and rehearse a tableau (some movement was allowed, if needed) that visually represented the key ideas from the section
- Present and explain your tableau.
In doing this task, I was trying to model one way to use drama as a means of working with content.
Unit Plan Sharing
After asking for suggestions on how to approach the unit plan sharing piece, we decided to do the following:
- Identify the subject and topic of each unit plan
- Meet in subject and / or topic groups
- Share any interesting ideas, activities, or assessments in the unit itself
I asked you to consider what you were considering through the WHERETO lens. In the post-sharing debrief, many of you mentioned that you had picked up some great ideas that you could weave into your own planning. Success!
Differentiated Instruction
The T in WHERETO stands for tailored; how will we tailor learning to varied needs, interests, [and] styles?
Pre-and During-Reading:
Things got pretty meta here as I differentiated my instruction on differentiated instruction. I provided you with a selection of articles (DI – content) and suggested that, as you read, you could make sense of the text in a way that worked for you (DI – process). Some noted that they would take notes in the margins, others were going to mind map the text, others were going to summarize each paragraph, and, well, the list went on.
Here are the articles we were working with:
- What’s the Next Big Thing with Literature Circles?
- A New Assignment: Pick Books You Like – New York Times article on The Future of Reading featuring Nancie Atwell
- Formative Assessment: The Driving Force Behind Differentiation
- Differentiating Instruction: Why Bother? – Carol Ann Tomlinson
- Restructuring the Inclusion Classroom to Facilitate Differentiated Instruction
- Differentiate Teaching and Learning With Web 2.0 Tools
- Tools for Schools: What’s New with Web 2.0
- Using Wikis to Differentiate Instruction in Literature Circles
- Make Learning Matter for the Multitasking Generation (with Web 2.0 tools)
- Formative assessment jump-starts a middle grades differentiation initiative
- Building and activating students’ background knowledge
- Actively engaging middle level students with photo journals
Post-Reading:
When the articles were read, I urged you to engage in an activity that would allow you to consolidate your understanding of the reading (DI – process). Some chatted with a peer while others took notes on how they could use the ideas from the texts in their own practice. To end, I aimed high, as I asked for any epiphanies you had while reading.
That’s all for today.
– Lawrence